A primary and important source of energy in the world today is oil. It is the backbone of our economy. It heats our homes, and propels our cars, trucks, ships, airplanes, and makes sure we have a job to work at. Because oil is so valuable, it represents great wealth and that is why it is referred to as black gold.
Near-surface petroleum deposits are well known phenomena mostly observed by petroleum exuding or seeping from the ground. Petroleum seeps are common in many areas of the world. The occurrence of surface petroleum was often memorialized in location names associated with early oil and gas exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments. As early as 1753, the surface oil springs of Pennsylvania were identified. While today's oil wells can be miles deep, there is still opportunity to develop petroleum from near surface deposits, provided that they can be discovered.
There are still countless undiscovered large and small pools of oil reserves that lay below the surface we walk on. The problem with trying to discover new oil is that it is very expensive to have all the heavy drilling equipment transported and set up at a site to try and drill a test hole. Many times the uneven topography of the terrain makes it almost impossible to get this drilling equipment to the site. Even if you do have vast amounts of money to spend on drilling a test hole, the chances of finding oil are very low.
America is a large country from sea to shining sea. If one flies across the country in an airplane, it is plain to see that most of the country is undeveloped small parcels of rural and farm land. People refer to this as “Fly Over Country.” There are still vast oil reserves waiting to be discovered on this rural and farm property. Most of the owners of these small farm parcels are just typical families that have very little money to spend. They are unlikely to ever have enough money for a professional drilling company to come to their property and set up all the equipment to drill a test well hole. They may be just making ends meet on a limited fixed income and they may be walking over top of a fortune in oil that lies below their feet. Such people are often referred to as “land rich and cash poor,” because they have a small family farm that has been passed down for generations, and they may live close to or below the poverty line.
Near-surface water aquifers are also highly sought by farmers needing water for crops. Water wells have a very long history for human activity. One of the world's oldest known water wells is located in Cyprus, dated to 7000-8500 BC. Until recent time, all artificial wells were pumpless, hand-dug wells of varying degrees of formality, and they remain a very important source of potable water in some rural developing areas where they are routinely dug and used today. Such wells have been successfully excavated to about 60 meters (200 ft).